The Future of the Environment

Ecological Economics and Technological Change

Faye Duchin and Glenn-Marie Lange

The Future of the Environment

Ecological Economics and Technological Change

Faye Duchin and Glenn-Marie Lange

Description

One of the most important and complex problems facing both developing and industrialized nations is how to sustain economic growth without harming the environment. Faye Duchin and Glenn-Marie Lange address this issue in a practical and realistic way: through a detailed evaluation of the well-known approach to sustainable development outlined in the Brundtland Report, Our Common Future.

Taking issue with the Brundtland Report's optimistic and widely accepted assumptions, the authors show that the positive effects of recycling, increased fuel-efficiency, and other technological adjustments will not go far enough to provide for truly sustainable development in the long term. Through a new, broad-based empirical analysis, they argue that unless there are significant changes in lifestyles and the use of technologies, continued environmental degradation cannot be avoided. They warn that the trend of making only slight adjustments in the use of technologies, while feasible from an economic point of view for industrialized nations, will undoubtedly lead to further environmental damage.

In addition to offering a clear and unflinching look at what development is really doing to the global environment, the unique conceptual framework developed for this analysis provides an invaluable basis for analysis for the new, multidisciplinary field of ecological economics. Duchin and Lange describe how this new methodology will enable economists and policy-makers to evaluate our options for the future, and choose those that most effectively reduce environmental degradation and achieve sustainable development. The book will appeal to economists, environmental scientists and activists, policy analysts, and ecologists, as well as the general reader with an interest in the sustainable development of our environment.

The Future of the Environment

Ecological Economics and Technological Change

Faye Duchin and Glenn-Marie Lange

Author Information

Faye Duchin is Director of the Institute for Economic Analysis at New York University and Vice President of the International Society for Ecological Economics.
Glenn-Marie Lange is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Economic Analysis at New York University.

The Future of the Environment

Ecological Economics and Technological Change

Faye Duchin and Glenn-Marie Lange

Reviews and Awards

"This study, the latest step in a cumulative endeavor of great importance, provides a conceptual and empirical framework for ecological economics to build alternative visions of the future....The book contributes to positive economics by showing how a system can work in the future in light of the constraints under which it operates."--Choice "An innovative and illuminating application of input-output techniques to environmental issues. The book takes a critical step translating generalities about the concept of sustainable growth into a subject amenable to effective analysis."--William J. Baumol, New York University

"The Future of the Environment represents the latest step in a cumulative endeavor of great import. The World Input-Output Model was pioneered by Wassily Leontief in the 1970s; its development continues at the institute founded by Leontief, now directed by Duchin. The progressive refinement of this demanding methodology, presented here in the form of scenario analysis, represents the best available approach for understanding and evaluating different paths into the future."--Neva Goodwin, Tufts University

"The book will become a landmark contribution to ecological economics. It poses insightful and far-reaching questions, yet is grounded firmly in a rigorous theoretical and empirical framework. These qualities are distinctly absent from many environmental analyses and prescriptions for 'sustainable development'."--Cutler J. Cleveland, Boston University